Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy [the dot read aloud .TXT] 📗

she affixed the

name “Science” to Christianity, the name “error” to 483:15 corporeal sense, and the name “substance” to

Mind. Science has called the world to battle

over this issue and its demonstration, which 483:18 heals the sick, destroys error, and reveals the universal

harmony. To those natural Christian Scientists, the ancient worthies, and to Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed 483:21 the spirit of Christian Science, if not the absolute letter.

 

Science the way

 

Because the Science of Mind seems to bring into dishonor the ordinary scientific schools, which wrestle with 483:24 material observations alone, this Science has

met with opposition; but if any system honors

God, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all think-483:27 ing persons. And Christian Science does honor God as

no other theory honors Him, and it does this in the way

of His appointing, by doing many wonderful works 483:30 through the divine name and nature. One must fulfil

one’s mission without timidity or dissimulation, for to be

well done, the work must be done unselfishly. Christianity 484:1 will never be based on a divine Principle and so found to

be unerring, until its absolute Science is reached. When 484:3 this is accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry,

nor envy can wash away its foundation, for it is built upon

the rock, Christ.

 

Mindless methods

484:6 Question. - Does Christian Science, or metaphysical

healing, include medication, material hygiene, mesmerism, hypnotism, theosophy, or spiritualism? 484:9 Answer. - Not one of them is included in it. In divine Science, the supposed laws of matter yield to the

law of Mind. What are termed natural 484:12 science and material laws are the objective

states of mortal mind. The physical universe expresses

the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals. 484:15 Physical force and mortal mind are one. Drugs and

hygiene oppose the supremacy of the divine Mind.

Drugs and inert matter are unconscious, mindless. Cer-484:18 tain results, supposed to proceed from drugs, are really

caused by the faith in them which the false human consciousness is educated to feel.

 

Animal magnetism error

484:21 Mesmerism is mortal, material illusion. Animal magnetism is the voluntary or involuntary action of error

in all its forms; it is the human antipode 484:24 of divine Science. Science must triumph

over material sense, and Truth over error, thus putting

an end to the hypotheses involved in all false theories 484:27 and practices.

 

Error only ephemeral

 

Question. - Is materiality the concomitant of spirituality, and is material sense a necessary preliminary to 484:30 the understanding and expression of Spirit? 485:1 Answer. - If error is necessary to define or to reveal

Truth, the answer is yes; but not otherwise. Material 485:3 sense is an absurd phrase, for matter has no

sensation. Science declares that Mind, not

matter, sees, hears, feels, speaks. Whatever contradicts 485:6 this statement is the false sense, which ever betrays

mortals into sickness, sin, and death. If the unimportant and evil appear, only soon to disappear because 485:9 of their uselessness or their iniquity, then these ephemeral views of error ought to be obliterated by Truth.

Why malign Christian Science for instructing mortals how 485:12 to make sin, disease, and death appear more and more

unreal?

 

Scientific translations

 

Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not 485:15 to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come

naturally into Spirit through better health and

morals and as the result of spiritual growth. 485:18 Not death, but the understanding of Life, makes man immortal. The belief that life can be in matter or soul in

body, and that man springs from dust or from an egg, 485:21 is the result of the mortal error which Christ, or Truth,

destroys by fulfilling the spiritual law of being, in which

man is perfect, even as the “Father which is in heaven 485:24 is perfect.” If thought yields its dominion to other ‘

powers, it cannot outline on the body its own beautiful

images, but it effaces them and delineates foreign agents, 485:27 called disease and sin.

 

Material beliefs

 

The heathen gods of mythology controlled war and

agriculture as much as nerves control sensation or 485:30 muscles measure strength. To say that

strength is in matter, is like saying that the

power is in the lever. The notion of any life or intelli-486:1 gence in matter is without foundation in fact, and you

can have no faith in falsehood when you have learned 486:3 falsehood’s true nature.

 

Sense versus Soul

 

Suppose one accident happens to the eye, another to

the ear, and so on, until every corporeal sense is quenched. 486:6 What is man’s remedy? To die, that he may

regain these senses? Even then he must gain

spiritual understanding and spiritual sense in order to 486:9 possess immortal consciousness. Earth’s preparatory

school must be improved to the utmost. In reality man

never dies. The belief that he dies will not establish his 486:12 scientific harmony. Death is not the result of Truth but

of error, and one error will not correct another.

 

Death an error

 

Jesus proved by the prints of the nails, that his body 486:15 was the same immediately after death as before. If death

restores sight, sound, and strength to man,

then death is not an enemy but a better friend 486:18 than Life. Alas for the blindness of belief, which makes

harmony conditional upon death and matter, and yet

supposes Mind unable to produce harmony! So long 486:21 as this error of belief remains, mortals will continue mortal in belief and subject to chance and change.

 

Permanent sensibility

 

Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are 486:24 eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immortality are in Spirit and understanding, not in

matter, - hence their permanence. If this 486:27 were not so, man would be speedily annihilated. If the

five corporeal senses were the medium through which

to understand God, then palsy, blindness, and deafness 486:30 would place man in a terrible situation, where he would

be like those “having no hope, and without God in the

world;” but as a matter of fact, these calamities often 487:1 drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happiness and existence.

 

Exercise of Mind-faculties

487:3 Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of

man, never attainable through death, but gained by walking in the pathway of Truth both before and 487:6 after that which is called death. There is more

Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually

than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual 487:9 exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost

they cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehension

of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf cen-487:12 turies ago, and it will repeat the wonder.

 

Understanding versus belief

 

Question. - You speak of belief. Who or what is it

that believes? 487:15 Answer. - Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the

need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind

understands. The body cannot believe. The 487:18 believer and belief are one and are mortal.

Christian evidence is founded on Science or

demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and 487:21 there is in reality no such thing as mortal mind. Mere

belief is blindness without Principle from which to explain the reason of its hope. The belief that life is sen-487:24 tient and intelligent matter is erroneous.

 

The Apostle James said, “Show me thy faith without

thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works.” 487:27 The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens

our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless

reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.

 

Confirmation by healing

487:30 This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This

Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the 488:1 enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result

of our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When, 488:3 on the strength of these instructions, you are

able to banish a severe malady, the cure shows

that you understand this teaching, and therefore you re-488:6 ceive the blessing of Truth.

 

Belief and firm trust

 

The Hebrew and Greek words often translated belief

differ somewhat in meaning from that conveyed by the 488:9 English verb believe; they have more the significance of faith, understanding, trust, constancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures often appear in 488:12 our common version to approve and endorse belief, when

they mean to enforce the necessity of understanding.

 

All faculties from Mind

 

Question. - Do the five corporeal senses constitute 488:15 man?

Answer. - Christian Science sustains with immortal

proof the impossibility of any material sense, and defines 488:18 these so-called senses as mortal beliefs, the

testimony of which cannot be true either of

man or of his Maker. The corporeal senses can take no 488:21 cognizance of spiritual reality and immortality. Nerves

have no more sensation, apart from what belief bestows upon them, than the fibres of a plant. Mind alone 488:24 possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension.

Therefore mental endowments are not at the mercy of

organization and decomposition, - otherwise the very 488:27 worms could unfashion man. If it were possible for the

real senses of man to be injured, Soul could reproduce

them in all their perfection; but they cannot be dis-488:30 turbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind,

not in matter.

 

Possibilities of Life

489:1 The less mind there is manifested in matter the better.

When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows 489:3 again. If the Science of Life were understood,

it would be found that the senses of Mind are

never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the 489:6 human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster’s

claw, - not with an artificial limb, but with the genuine

one. Any hypothesis which supposes life to be in matter 489:9 is an educated belief. In infancy this belief is not equal

to guiding the hand to the mouth; and as consciousness

develops, this belief goes out, - yields to the reality of 489:12 everlasting Life.

 

Decalogue disregarded

 

Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the

commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de-489:15 mands. How then can this sense be the God-given channel to man of divine blessings or

understanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de-489:18 pendent on material means for knowing, hearing, seeing?

Who dares to say that the senses of man can be at one time

the medium for sinning against God, at another the me-489:21 dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would contradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth not

forth sweet waters and bitter.

 

Organic construction valueless

489:24 The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or

error. Christian Science shows them to be false, because matter has no sensation, and no organic 489:27 construction can give it hearing and sight nor

make it the medium of Mind. Outside the

material sense of things, all is harmony. A wrong sense 489:30 of God, man, and creation is non-sense, want of sense.

Mortal belief would have the material senses sometimes

good and sometimes bad. It assures mortals that there 490:1 is real pleasure in sin; but the grand truths of Christian

Science dispute this error.

 

Will-power an animal propensity

490:3 Will-power is but a product of belief, and this belief

commits depredations on harmony. Human will is an

animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul. 490:6 Hence it cannot govern man aright. Christian Science reveals Truth and Love as the

motive-powers of man. Will - blind, stubborn, and head-490:9 long - cooperates with appetite and passion. From this

cooperation arises its evil. From this also comes its powerlessness, since all power belongs to